1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an inflatable stairway slide assembly for facilitating one's sliding down a conventional stairway having a plurality of steps and more particularly to an inflatable stairway slide coupled to an underlying inflatable base that supports the slide in spaced relation with the underlying stairway steps.
2. Description of Prior Art and Advantages
Parents sometimes find it inconvenient to transport a child to an outdoor park to use a conventional outdoor slide. Inclement weather will also interfere with a child using a conventional outdoor slide. Sometimes, a parent must care for a younger child who must nap when an older child wants to play on a slide. A slide constructed according to the present invention has the advantage of being inflatable for indoor use on a stairway. Indoor slides have been provided heretofore such as that illustrated in U.S. Des. Pat. No. 0472,2928 issued to LeRoy J. Peterson on Mar. 25, 2003; Des. No, 328,326 issued to Frank C. Kuan on Jul. 28, 1992; and Des. No. 340,965 issued to Roger Lee on Nov. 2, 1993. Such slides are relatively small, but bulky and sometimes inconvenient to store. It is an advantage of the present invention to provide a new and novel inflatable slide assembly which will mount atop the steps on one side of a stairway leaving the other side of the stairway available for normal use.
Various inflatable slides have been provided heretofore for emergency evacuation of passengers from airplanes, such as that illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,463,287; 3,465,991; and 3,656,579. If used on a stairway, the prior art airplane slides may provide a bumpy and painful ride as the child downwardly negotiates successive treads of stairway steps. According to the present invention, an inflatable base is provided for underlying and supporting the inflatable slide in spaced relation with the stairway steps. The invention contemplates utilizing a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart transversely extending inflatable tubular sections disposed in the space defined by each stairway tread and its adjacent riser and inflated to a level to support the inflatable slide in spaced relation with the treads.
The stairway slide constructed according to the present invention is fabricated from a pair of thin plastic sheets that are sealed together at selected intervals to provide longitudinal air passages. The invention includes an inflatable base which underlies the slide to protect a person from being bruised by contact with one or more of the underlying steps as the person slides down the stairway. Accordingly, it is an advantage of the present invention to provide an underlying inflatable support base which supports the slide in vertically spaced relation with the top sharp edges of the underlying stairway steps.
It is another advantage of the present invention to provide a slide assembly of the type described including, at its discharge end, a separately inflatable deceleration section which includes an enlarged terminal bumper. The stairway slide assembly constructed according to the present invention contemplates an approach pad coupled to the inflatable slide and anchored to the stairway and also detachably mounting intermediate members for detachably coupling the slide to the stairway steps to preclude lateral movement thereof.
The invention contemplates the underlying base including cylindrical, inflatable tubes which are received in the crotch of each successive step whereas another embodiment of the present invention contemplates triangular inflatable sections which extend to a level slightly above the steps, and another embodiment adds reduced diameter transversely extending, inflatable edge protector tubes disposed between the cylindrical tubes.
The inflatable stairway slide and the underlying base are each formed with a pair of sheets that are sealed at portions to define air passages therebetween which can be inflated to provide longitudinally extending airway passages in the upper slide section and transversely extending airway passages to the underlying base,
In one embodiment of the invention, the sheets of the upper slide and the underlying base are integrally coupled whereas in another embodiment, the underlying base is detachably coupled to the slide.
In all cases, however, the slide assembly is easily inflated for quick assembly and easily deflated for quick and easy disassembly and storage.
These and other advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent as the descriptions hereof proceeds: